Perfect Phrases for Customer Service, Second Edition: Hundreds of Ready-To-Use Phrases for Handling Any Customer Service Situation (Perfect Phrases Series)

THE RIGHT PHRASE FOR EVERY SITUATION . . . EVERY TIME You've heard it a million times: "The customer is always right." But let’s face it—sometimes the customer is misinformed, confused, or downright difficult. The ability to handle such customers is what separates the serious professional from the average employee. Perfect Phrases for Customer Service , second edition, provides the language you need for everyday customer service situations—and includes simple, effective techniques that can help you meet even the most demanding customer needs. Master the most effective words and phrases for: Defusing bad situations before they get worse Handling complaints patiently and professionally Satisfying customers and increasing sales Building long-term relationships with important customers Excerpt CHAPTER 1Basics of Customer ServiceThere must be a billion words written about customer service. Advice abounds,from the banal and obvious (smile when you talk on the phone) to complex anddifficult suggestions about how to "create a corporate culture of excellentcustomer service."Amid all the words, simple or fancy, is a basic hidden truth about customerservice: the person who interacts directly with the customer determines whetherthat customer perceives that he or she is receiving poor customer service,excellent service, or something in between. If you serve customers directly, youhave the power to affect their perceptions. That customer contact is where "therubber meets the road."If you provide service to customers, your words and behaviors are the tools youuse to create a positive customer perception of you and the company you workfor. Whether you're a novice working with customers or a seasoned pro, what youdo and say will affect how customers see you. You can't help it. Customers willform opinions, so you might as well learn how to create positive opinions. Butyou need to know how to do that.It might be that you get paid minimum wage and you don't plan to stay in yourcustomer service job. Why care what customers think? The answer issimple—self-interest! Customers who form negative opinions about you canmake your life miserable. When they get angry, they complain, slow down servicefor others (making them mad), threaten, swear, and otherwise do thingsthat add stress to your job. In some cases, their anger can escalate to thepoint where your physical safety is at risk. All because you couldn't bebothered or didn't care. It's to your benefit to provide decent customerservice just for these reasons. More on what's in it for you in a moment.That's what this book is for—to teach you about the dozens and dozens oftechniques you can use when interacting with customers so they'll walk away withpositive feelings about the experience. You'll learn about very specific thingsyou can do or say in all kinds of customer interactions. You'll learn how todeal with difficult customers. You'll learn how to approach customers and how toget information from them so you can do your job. You'll learn to deal withcustomer service problems quickly, efficiently, and professionally. Best of all,the techniques in this book will fit your needs, whether you serve burgers,staff the desk in a hotel, help people in health care environments, or even workfor the government.This book will tell you exactly what to do and say, and it will provide you withnumerous examples so you can use customer service techniques effectively.Let's get started!What's in It for Me?Why should you be concerned with providing excellent customer service? You don'town the company. You may not get paid more for providing excellent customerservice. So, what's in it for you?There are three powerful reasons for learning to provide great customer service:greater job satisfaction, reduced stress and hassle, and enhanced job success.First, very few people derive any job satisfaction when they feel that the timethey spend at work is "wasted." Most of us need to feel useful andproductive—to make a difference, whether it's helping a fast food customermake healthier food choices or dispensing legal advice. When you provide high-quality customer service, you feel that you're making that difference and canderive pride in your work. The day goes faster.When you do a good job with a customer, such as calming down someone who's angryand complaining, you feel good about having achieved something. Perhaps moreimportant than your own perceptions are the customer's perceptions, when you doa good job with a customer and he or she tells you what you've achieved. Thatfeedback helps you feel good about yourself and your performance. Doing a goodjob and taking pride in how you serve customers are ways to prevent job burnout.Second, deliver quality customer service and you will save yourself a lot ofstress and hassle. When you learn and use customer service skills, you are farless likely to get into protracted, unpleasant, and upsetting interactions witha customer. You make yourself less of a target for customer wrath. That'sbecause customer service skills help keep customers from becoming angry andreduce the length and intensity of the anger when and if difficult customerservice situations occur.Third, learning and using quality customer service techniques helps form theperceptions of those who may be able to help your career—supervisors,managers, and potential employers. Using these techniques makes you look good toeveryone, and that's critical in getting promoted, receiving pay raises, andgetting new job opportunities. Managers and supervisors notice when a customerasks for you specifically because you do such a good job or comments positivelyabout how you've helped.Of course, you may have other reasons to want to provide the best customerservice possible. You may want to contribute to the success of your employer.You may like the feeling of having other employees look up to you as a goodmodel. Or you may even benefit directly if you work on a commission basis. Inmany jobs, people who are good at customer service earn more.Regardless of your reasons, quality customer service techniques can be learned,and you can learn them with a little effort.In the rest of this chapter, we'll provide an overview of customer serviceprinciples and issues and explain how to use this book. In the next chapter,we'll describe 60 techniques you should be using. The rest of the book isdedicated to showing you how to use those techniques.Different Kinds of CustomersBefore we continue, we should clarify what the word "customer" means.You're probably familiar with our starting definition: the customer isthe person who pays for goods or services that you provide. This definitionworks in some contexts, but not all. It breaks down in situations where moneydoesn't directly change hands. For example, people often interact withgovernment, public schools, and other organizations. They receive goods orservices from them, but do not pay anything directly to them. We need to changeour definition so that people who interact with these organizations fall underour definition of customer, since they, too, deserve high-quality customerservice, even if they aren't paying directly.Here's a better definition: the customer is the person next in line whoreceives your output (service, products). That person may purchase goods orservices directly or receive output you create or deliver without directpayment. The person may be outside your company, but this definition alsoincludes anyone within the company who receives output from you.There are four basic types of customers. Regardless of type, each customerdeserves to receive top-quality customer service, and each can make your worklife miserable if you don't provide it.First, there are external paying customers. These are the people who pay to eatin a restaurant, pay for health care and legal advice, or pay to stay in ahotel.Second, there are internal customers. These are people who receive output(services, products, information) that you create or provide, but who are in thesame organization as you. Internal customers may be billed via interdepartmentalcharge systems, or there may be no payment system in place. For example, humanresources staff members involved in hiring employees, in effect, work forinternal customers (the manage(Continues...) Sometimes the customer is misinformed or confused - or just downright difficult to deal with. Even so, customer service is the single most important key to success in today's highly competitive marketplace. This book provides perfect solutions for everyday customer service situations - and includes simple, effective techniques that can help you meet even the most demanding customer needs